English-speaking immigrants from countries like Australia and India should be given priority to come to the UK over Eastern European migrants who “haven’t fully recovered from being behind the Iron Curtain,” Nigel Farage has said.

The UK Independence Party (UKIP) leader admitted he prefers immigrants from these Commonwealth nations because they understand the British legal system and have a similar culture to Britain’s.

“Let's suppose one from Mogadishu with the same skills, the same ability to speak English, but not as a first language to one from Melbourne – do you have a preference?” BBC presenter Evan Davis asked Farage on Wednesday evening.

Farage replied, “I have to confess I do have a slight preference. I do think, naturally, that people from India and Australia are in some ways more likely to speak English, understand common law and have a connection with this country than some people that come perhaps from countries that haven’t fully recovered from being behind the Iron Curtain.”

Farage has previously claimed he has a “non-discriminatory” policy on immigration, as UKIP would not give preference to EU migrants over those from the rest of the world.

Last year, he told LBC radio, “I actually want us to have an immigration policy that is non-discriminatory, because at the moment we discriminate in favor of people from Poland, or Romania, or Bulgaria, regardless [of] who they are, and we discriminate against people from New Zealand … or from India, or Canada, or whatever else it may be.

“We’ve got our, I think, our priorities completely wrong here. And we should not be discriminating on grounds of nationality.”

He also admitted that he and his party used controversial and provocative statements to get attention.

Referring to his previous statements during the live leaders’ TV debates, when he said the NHS should not be treating foreigners with HIV and that immigrants with criminal records should be denied entry, he said such language was sometimes necessary “to wake people up” to the issue and to “get noticed.”

Farage said such tactics were no longer necessary for UKIP.

“Political parties evolve and change,” he said. “And if you look at the way UKIP is fighting this general election, everything through our manifesto to all the speeches I’ve given all over the country, what I’m saying is this: we no longer need to make the negative arguments about the effect that immigration has had on primary school places, on healthcare provision, on wage compression.”